The Film Engineer

This was the second film in my day of cinema and after seeing Wild Horse Nine, I wondered if this would be as good. I guess that is always subjective, especially as Rocky is one of my favourites films and I already knew a certain amount of the details of how it came to screen.

Now one thing to emphasise, is this is not a documentary and as such some of the details are subject to the ‘Based On’ motif. Which basically means we are going to take artistic licence and they sure do in certain areas of this retelling. If you want some details on this then there is a great YouTube video from Watch Mojo on the what was real and what was fictionalised.

I Play Rocky, will live and die by the person Playing Rocky/Sylvester Stallone, it’s a dual role played by Anthony Ippolito. This is not the first time he has played a living actor in a role, he also played Al Pacino in The Offer. Which was about the making of The Godfather and is a series that I still need to watch. In I Play Rocky this is not an impersonation that would have come off as fake. He embodies both Stallone and Rocky brilliantly.

He is ably assisted by Anna Sophia Robb who plays his partner at the time. I last saw her in Charlie and Chocolate factory as Violet Beauregarde. She has certainly come a long way since this performance and Robb shows that without her support Rocky would never have been made and shows behind every good man is a great woman.

Although, as I said above this is not a documentary it does cover most of the truths for instance that Stallone had a very hard time early on his career and even with this he would not sell out. As the title of the films states ‘I Play Rocky’ and not matter how much money was thrown at him to sell the script. He was inspired by Orson Wells who had written and starred as Citizen Kane and hence he wrote Rocky as his route to success as an actor.

I really enjoyed this insight into how Rocky came to the big screen and I wander what Stallone himself would have thought of it, I would imagine he would have been impressed. I know that he was impressed with Ippolito’s version of him from interviews I have seen. There is a particular scene that if you know the film you will recognise, where the director states this is not working and he needed to give more of himself and it’s here where you also see just how well Stallone/Rocky is brought to life here.

The film also highlighted how important the Producers Chartoff and Winkler were to this film coming to the big screen and how having someone believe in you can be very important in life. Here, Stallone had the backing of not only his partner, but also the financial & emotional  backing of the producers of Rocky. They knew they had a great script, but they also had someone they wanted to help to succeed.

If you love Rocky, then this is a high recommend from me and if not then you might not get as much out of it. However, what is up with you not liking Rocky 😉 Which itself is currently in cinemas on its 50th Anniversary re-release.

The only thing it missed was a shout of Adrienne at the end, but hey this is not Rocky it is ‘I Play Rocky’. Instead I will finish this review with a quote from the film “This movie, it’s about having a belief in yourself… If I’m not willing to live up to what I wrote, then what’s the point? So, do you believe in me… or not?” I believed in this film.